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Russian Alaska was the period between 1733 and 1867 in which Russia controlled the territory that today is the United States state, Alaska. Year 1733 ( MDCCXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Year 1867 ( MDCCCLXVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent
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Russian discovery of Alaska
The first written accounts indicate that the first Europeans to reach Alaska came from Russia. One legend holds that the first Russian settlement in Alaska was founded when boats from a 1648 expedition of Semyon Dezhnev, which was meant to go to the Anadyr River, were carried off course and carried to Alaska. Semyon (Semнon Semion Simon Ivanovich Dezhnev (Семён Ива́нович Дежнёв c Anadyr (Ана́дырь is a River in the extreme northeast of Siberia, Russian Federation. There is no evidence, however, of such a settlement or settlements. It is possible that Dezhnyev and Fedot Alekseev, a Russian merchant, became the first people to sail into the Arctic from the Pacific through what is now the Bering Strait. The Arctic is the Region around the Earth 's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Bering Strait (Берингов пролив Beringov proliv) is a sea Strait between Cape Dezhnev, Russia, the easternmost point (169°43' His discovery was never forwarded to the central government, leaving the question of whether or not Siberia was connected to North America. In 1725, Peter I of Russia called for another expedition.
As a part of the 1733-1743 second Kamchatka expedition, the St. The Second Kamchatka expedition (Russian Вторая Камчатская экспедиция was led by Dane Vitus Bering after being chosen by Peter Peter, captained by Dane Vitus Bering, and the St. Vitus Jonassen Bering (also less correctly Behring) ( August 1681 &ndash December 19, 1741) was a Danish -born navigator in the Paul, captained by Russian Alexei Chirikov, set sail from Russia at the Kamchatkan port of Petropavlovsk in June 1741. Aleksei Ilyich Chirikov (Алексей Ильич Чириков (1703 – November 1748 was a Russian Navigator and Captain who charted some of the Aleutian Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Петропа́вловск-Камча́тский is the main city and the administrative industrial scientific and cultural center of Year 1741 ( MDCCXLI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year They were soon separated, but each continued sailing east.
On July 15, Chirikov sighted land, probably the west side of Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. Events 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final For other islands named after the Prince of Wales see Prince of Wales Island. [1] He sent a group of men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to land on the northwestern coast of North America. The European peoples are the various Nations and Ethnic groups of Europe.
On roughly July 16, Bering and the crew of St. Events 622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar. 1054 - Three Roman legates fractured relations between the Western and Peter sighted Mount Saint Elias on the Alaskan mainland; they turned westward toward Russia soon afterward. Mount Saint Elias is the second highest Mountain in both the United States and Canada, being situated on the Alaska and Yukon border Meanwhile, Chirikov and the St. Paul headed back to Russia in October with news of the land they had found.
In November, however, Bering's ship was wrecked on Bering Island. Bering Island (о́стров Бе́ринга is located off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea. There, Bering fell ill and died, and the ship was dashed to pieces by high winds. The stranded crew wintered on the island, then the survivors built a boat from the wreckage and set sail for Russia in August 1742. Bering's crew reached the shore of Kamchatka in 1742, carrying word of the expedition. The sea otter pelts they brought, soon judged to be the finest fur in the world, would spark Russian settlement in Alaska. Fur is a body hair of any non-human Mammal, also known as the Pelage.
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| History of Alaska |
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| Prehistory |
| Russian Alaska (1733-1867) |
| Department of Alaska (1867-1884) |
| District of Alaska (1884-1912) |
| Alaska Territory (1912-1959) |
| Recent history (1959-present) |
| Other topics |
Russian settlement
1740s to 1800
Subsequently, small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of Siberia towards the Aleutian islands. Prehistoric Alaska begins with Paleolithic peoples moving into northwestern North America sometime between 60000 and 50000 BC across the Bering Land Bridge The Department of Alaska was the designation for the government of Alaska from its purchase by the United States of America in 1867 until its organization as the The District of Alaska was the governmental designation for Alaska from May 17, 1884 to August 24, 1912, when it became The Alaska Territory was an incorporated territory of the United States from 1912 to 1959 The Bering Strait (Берингов пролив Beringov proliv) is a sea Strait between Cape Dezhnev, Russia, the easternmost point (169°43' Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving The Aleutian Islands (possibly from Chukchi aliat, " Island " are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming a Volcanic As the runs from Siberia to America became longer expeditions (lasting two to four years or more), the crews established hunting and trading posts. By the late 1790s, these had become permanent settlements. Approximately half of the fur traders were Russians from various European parts of the Russian Empire or from Siberia. The Russian people (Русские— Russkie) are an East Slavic Ethnic group, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya The others were indigenous people from Siberia or Siberians with mixed indigenous, European and Asian origins.
Rather than hunting the marine life for themselves, the Russians forced the Aleuts to do the work for them. The Aleuts ( self-denomination from Aleut language allíthuh 'community' older or regional self-denomination Unangax̂, Unangan or [2] As word spread of the riches in furs to be had, competition among Russian companies increased and the Aleuts were forced into slavery [2]. Catherine the Great, who became Empress in 1763, proclaimed good will toward the Aleuts and urged her subjects to treat them fairly. Catherine II, called Catherine the Great (Екатерина II Великая Yekaterina II Velikaya;) reigned as Empress of Russia for 34 years An emperor (from the Latin " Imperator " is a (male Monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an Empire or another type of On some islands and parts of the Alaska Peninsula, groups of traders had been capable of relatively peaceful coexistence with the local inhabitants. Other groups could not manage the tensions and perpetrated exactions. Hostages were taken, families were split up, and individuals were forced to leave their villages and settle elsewhere. A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security The growing competition between the trading companies, merging into fewer, larger and more powerful corporations, created a conflictual situation that aggravated the relations with the indigenous populations. Over the years, the situation became catastrophic.
As the animal populations declined, the Aleuts, already too dependent on the new barter economy created by the Russian fur trade, were increasingly coerced into taking greater and greater risks in the highly dangerous waters of the North Pacific to hunt for more otters. As the powerful Shelikhov-Golikov Company established itself as a monopoly, skirmishes and violent incidents turned into systematic violence as a tool of colonial exploitation of the indigenous people. When the Aleuts revolted and won some victories, the Russians retaliated, killing many and destroying their boats and hunting gear, leaving them no means of survival. Eighty percent of the Aleut population was destroyed by Old World diseases, against which they had no immunity, during the first two generations of Russian contact. The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans Asians and Africans in the 15th century An infectious disease is a clinically evident Disease resulting from the presence of Pathogenic microbial agents including Pathogenic viruses Pathogenic [3]
Though the colony was never very profitable, because of the costs of transportation, most Russian traders were determined to keep the land for themselves. This article is about a type of political territory For other uses see Colony (disambiguation. In 1784, Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov, who would later set up the Russian-Alaska Company that colonized early Alaska, arrived in Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island with two ships, the Three Saints and the St. Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov (Shelekhov (Григорий Иванович Шелихов (Шелехов in Russian; English spelling varies from Shelekov to Kodiak Island is a large island on the south coast of the US state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. Simon. [4] The indigenous Koniag harassed the Russian party and Shelikhov responded by killing hundreds and taking hostages to enforce the obedience of the rest. Having established his authority on Kodiak Island, Shelikhov founded the second permanent Russian settlement in Alaska (after Unalaska) on the island's Three Saints Bay. Unalaska ( Iluulux̂ in Aleut) is a small city in the Aleutians West Census Area of the Unorganized Borough of the U
In 1790, Shelikhov, back in Russia, hired Alexandr Baranov to manage his Alaskan fur enterprise. Aleksandr Andreevich Baranov (Александр Андреевич Баранов in Russian) sometimes spelled Aleksander or Alexander and Baranov moved the colony to the northeast end of Kodiak Island, where timber was available. Lumber or timber is Wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural Material for Construction, or The site later became what is now the city of Kodiak. Kodiak (Кадьяк is one of 6 communities and the main city on Kodiak Island in Kodiak Island Borough in the U Russian members of the colony took Koniag wives and started families whose names continue today, such as Panamaroff, Petrikoff, and Kvasnikoff. In 1795, Baranov, concerned by the sight of non-Russian Europeans trading with the Natives in southeast Alaska, established Mikhailovsk six miles (10 km) north of present-day Sitka. He bought the land from the Tlingits, but in 1802, while Baranov was away, Tlingits from a neighboring settlement attacked and destroyed Mikhailovsk. Baranov returned with a Russian warship and razed the Tlingit village. He then built the settlement of New Archangel. It became the capital of Russian America and today is the city of Sitka, which covers what was previously the Mikhailovsk area.
As Baranov secured the Russians' physical presence in Alaska, the Shelikhov family continued to work back in Russia to win a monopoly on Alaska's fur trade. In Economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos, alone or single + polein, to sell exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient In 1799, Shelikhov's son-in-law, Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov, had acquired a monopoly on the American fur trade from Tsar Paul I. Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov (Николай Петрович Резанов (1764 &ndash 1807 was a Russian nobleman and statesman who promoted the project of Russian Paul (Па́вел I Петро́вич Pavel Petrovich) ( &ndash) was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801 Rezanov then formed the Russian-American Company. The Russian-American Company ( Under His Imperial Majesty's Protection Russian-American Company)was a state-sponsored Trading company begun by Grigory and Natalia As part of the deal, the Tsar expected the company to establish new settlements in Alaska and carry out an expanded colonization program. Tsar csar and tzar redirect here For other uses see Tsar (disambiguation.
1800 to 1867
By 1804, Alexandr Baranov, now manager of the Russian–American Company, had consolidated the company's hold on fur trade activities in the Americas following his victory over the local Tlingit clan at the Battle of Sitka. Year 1804 ( MDCCCIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a The Battle of Sitka (1804 was the last major armed conflict between Europeans and Alaska Natives, and was initiated in response to the destruction of a Russian Despite these efforts, the Russians never fully colonized Alaska. For the most part they clung to the coast and shunned the inland. The coast is defined as the part of the land adjoining or near the Ocean. By the 1830s, the Russian monopoly on trade was weakening. The Hudson's Bay Company set up a post on the southern edge of Russian America in 1833. The British-Canadian firm began siphoning off trade.
The Americans were also becoming a force. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Baranov began to depend heavily on American supply ships, since they came more frequently than Russian ones. In addition, Americans could sell furs to the Canton market, which was closed to the Russians. The downside was that American hunters and trappers encroached on territory Russians considered theirs. Trapper may refer to A person who engages in Animal trapping Coal trapper Trapper Keeper, a brand of loose-leaf binder In 1812 a settlement was reached giving the Russians exclusive rights to fur trade above Latitude 55° North, the Americans to that below. Year 1812 ( MDCCCXII) a leap year started on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal Fur. The agreement soon went by the wayside, however, and with Baranov's retirement in 1818, the Russian hold on Alaska was further weakened. Year 1818 ( MDCCCXVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common
When the Russian-American Company's charter was renewed in 1821, it stipulated that the chief managers from then on be naval officers. A charter is the grant of authority or rights stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified An officer is a member of an armed force who holds a position of authority Most naval officers did not have any experience in the fur trade, so the company suffered. The second charter also tried to cut off all contact with foreigners, especially the competitive Americans, but this strategy backfired since the Russian colony had become used to relying on American supply ships, and America had become a valued customer for furs. In US law, an alien is a legal term for a person, either a corporation or a human who is not a United States national. Eventually the Russian–American Company entered into an agreement with the Hudson's Bay Company, which gave the British rights to sail through Russian territory.
Although the mid–1800s were not a good time for Russians in Alaska, conditions improved for the coastal Alaska Natives who had survived contact, primarily the Aleuts, Koniags, and Tlingits. The Tlingits were never conquered and continued to wage war on the Russians into the 1850s. War is an international relations Dispute, characterized by organized Violence between National Military units Events and Trends Industry Production of Steel revolutionized by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman The Aleuts, many of whom had been removed from their home islands and sent as far south as California to hunt sea otter for Russians, continued to decline in population during the 1840s. Events and trends Technology First use of General anesthesia in an operation by Crawford Long. The naval officers of the Russian–American Company established schools and hospitals for the Aleuts and gave them jobs. A hospital is an institution for Health care providing treatment by specialised staff and equipment and often but not always providing for Russian Orthodox clergy moved into the Aleutian Islands. The Aleut population began to increase.
Missionary activity
At Three Saints Bay, Shelikov built a school to teach the natives to read and write Russian, and introduced the first resident missionaries and clergymen who spread the Russian Orthodox faith. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages See also Eastern Orthodox Church Structure and organization The Slavic Orthodox Church is organized in a hierarchical structure This faith (with its liturgies and texts, translated into Aleut at a very early stage) had been informally introduced, in the 1740s-1780s, by the fur traders who founded local families or symbolically adopted Aleut trade partners as godchildren to gain their loyalty through this special personal bond. The missionaries soon opposed the exploitation of the indigenous populations and their reports remain one of our main sources on the violence exercised to establish colonial rule in this period.
Inspired by the same pastoral theology as Bartolomé de las Casas or St. Francis Xavier, the origins of which come from early Christianity's need to adapt to the cultures of Antiquity, missionaries in Russian America applied a strategy that placed value on local cultures and encouraged indigenous leadership in parish life and missionary activity. Bartolomé de las Casas, OP ( August 24 1484 &ndash July 17 1566) was a 16th century Spanish Dominican Saint Francis Xavier ( Konkani / Konknni: Sam Fransisku Xavier/ Sanv Fransisk Xavier Basque: San Frantzisko Xabierkoa Spanish: San Francisco This cultural policy was originally intended to gain the loyalty of the indigenous populations by establishing the authority of Church and State as protectors of over 10,000 inhabitants of Russian America (where the number of ethnic Russian settlers had always been less than the record 812, almost all concentrated in Sitka and Kodiak).
A side effect of the missionary strategy was to generate a new and autonomous form of indigenous identity, allowing many native traditions to survive in local "Russian" Orthodox tradition and in the religious life of the villages. Part of this modern indigenous identity is an alphabet and the basis for a written literature in almost each of the ethnic-linguistic groups in the Southern half of Alaska. Father Ivan Veniaminov (later St. Innocent of Alaska), famous throughout Russian America, also developed an Aleut dictionary for hundreds of languages and dialects based on the Russian alphabet. Saint Innocent of Alaska ( August 26, 1797 - March 31, 1879) also known as Saint Innocent of Moscow was a Russian Orthodox A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed Words in a specific language with definitions etymologies pronunciations and other information or a book of alphabetically
The most visible trace of the Russian colonial period in contemporary Alaska is the presence of nearly ninety Russian Orthodox parishes with a membership of over 20,000 men, women, and children, almost exclusively indigenous people, including several Athabascan groups of the interior, very large Yup'ik communities, and the quasi-totality of the Aleut and Koniag populations. Among the few Tlingit Orthodox parishes, the large group in Juneau adopted Orthodox Christianity only after the Russian colonial period, in an area where there had been no Russian settlers nor missionaries. What probably explains such an extent of a local Russian Orthodox tradition and its persistence is the merger of local cultures and Christian beliefs and rituals. It is a situation comparable in many aspects to the history of Latin American Catholicism.
Sale of Alaska to the United States
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By the 1860s, the Russian government was considering ridding itself of its Russian America colony. The Alaska Purchase (otherwise known as Seward's Folly or Seward's Icebox) by the United States from the Russian Empire occurred in 1867 at the behest Events and trends Technology The First Transcontinental Railroad in the USA was completed in 1869 Russian colonization of the Americas proceeded in several places Zealous overhunting had severely reduced the fur-bearing animal population, and competition from the British and Americans exacerbated the situation. This, combined with the difficulties of supplying and protecting such a distant colony, brought about a waning interest. After Russian America was sold to the U. S. , all the holdings of the Russian–American Company were liquidated.
Following the transfer, many elders of the local Tlingit tribe maintained that "Castle Hill" comprised the only land that Russia was entitled to sell. Not to be confused with the Turkic Telengit people The Tlingit (ˈklɪŋkɪt in English also /-gɪt/ or Tlinkit /ˈtlɪŋkɪt/ which Native land claims were not addressed until the latter half of the 20th Century, with the signing of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
At the height of Russian America, the Russian population had reached 700. They and the Creoles, who had been guaranteed the privileges of citizens in the United States, were given the opportunity of becoming citizens within a 3–year period, but few decided to exercise that option. For the languages see Creole language. For other meanings see Creole (disambiguation. General Jefferson C. Davis ordered the Russians out of their homes in Sitka, maintaining that they were needed for the Americans, and the Russians complained of rowdiness of the troops and assaults. Jefferson Columbus Davis ( March 2, 1828 &ndash November 30, 1879) was an officer in the United States Army who served in the Many Russians returned to Russia, while others travelled to California and the Pacific Northwest to seek their fortunes. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America (the term refers to the land not the ocean
After the United States purchased Alaska, many Protestant missionaries came and greatly proselytized the Orthodox Native Alaskans. Forcing them to accept various forms of Protestantism while squashing any traces of Orthodoxy.
See also
References
- ^ Russia's Great Voyages. Russian colonization of the Americas proceeded in several places The Russian American telegraph also known as the Western Union Telegraph Expedition and the Collins Overland telegraph was an $3000000 undertaking by the Western Retrieved on September 23, 2005. Events 1122 - Concordat of Worms. 1459 - Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
- ^ a b Taylor, Alan (2001) American Colonies: The Settling of North America Penguin Books, New York;
- ^ The Aleut Corporation Aleut History
- ^ Alaska History Timeline. Retrieved on August 31, 2005. Events 1056 - Byzantine Empress Theodora becomes ill dying suddenly a few days later without children to succeed the Throne Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
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